Misinformation Sees Significantly More Engagement than Real News on Facebook

One of the more concerning shifts of recent times has been the way in which social platforms have become distribution tools for fake news and reports, amplifying real-life movements based on the sharing and re-sharing of misinformation and outright lies Such content now has increased capacity to infiltrate, and impact, people's lives. For example, both Facebook and Twitter have now taken action against anti-vax groups, while just this month, all the major tech giants agreed to the Christchurch Call, which aims to unify their efforts to curb the spread of terrorism and extremist messaging.Given the dangers of such sharing, this is rightfully a key issue of focus - and this week, a new study conducted by Oxford University has again underlined why it's such a crucial concern. An analysis of Facebook data as shown that 'junk news' - or content from less reputable sources - gets shared 4x more than content from reputable, trusted news outlets across The Social Network. "These sources deliberately publish misleading, deceptive, or incorrect information purporting to be real news about politics, economics, or culture. This content includes various forms of propaganda and ideologically extreme, hyper-partisan, or conspiratorial news and information."Now, some will argue that this content is, in fact, true news, and that it's the mainstream outlets which publish lies - which in itself is a concerning trend of the modern era.To qualify this, Oxford's research team says that those listed in its 'junk news' category had to fulfill at least three of these five criteria: